Way back in 1940 or ’41, I made a fast walking trip up and down the basin of the Columbia River and its tributaries,the Snake, the Hood, Willamette, Yakima and the Klickitat, making up little songs about what I seen.

I made up 26 songs about the Bonneville dam, Grand Coulee dam, and the thunderous foamy waters of the rapids and cascades, the wild and windward watersprays from the high Sheliloh falls, and the folks living in the little shack house just about a mile from the end ofthe line.

The Department of Interior folks got ahold of me and took me into clothes closet there at the Bonneville Power Administration house in Portland and melted my songs down onto records.